Nothing earth-shattering in the announcement, but some pleasing things…
- Rumor is it gets better reception — might be very welcome here in San Francisco, where you get 5 bars on one block and 0 bars the next…
- Faster download speeds are great… assuming I get any reception… :)
- Longer battery life — I charge it every night anyway, but might be nice during travel.
- GPS — more accurate placement for maps would be handy, but I’ve found it good enough on the old system.
Otherwise it’s pretty much the same, hardware-wise. New software will be available on the old model too, and there’s still not a model with 32GB storage. 16’s not quite enough for my full music library, so I don’t have a huge incentive to upgrade from the 8GB model unless the reception really is good enough to… say… successfully make phone calls from my flat.
As for pricing… the purchase price is lower, but the the plan’s an extra $10/month, which more than makes up the savings over the contract lifetime.
On the plus side, the draconian requirement to activate your contract at the store means our European friends will stop pestering us to buy iPhones for them to take home and unlock. >:D
brion, I hate you.
bwahahaha!!!